It's Finally Here! — Hooray! The new Google Talk features (file sharing, voicemail, and music status) have completed testing and are now available to everyone. Just use Google Talk normally, and it will auto-update to the new version over the next few days. If you just can't wait, you can download the new version directly.

Google Talk marks first year with upgrade — Google Talk, which is celebrating its first birthday with an upgrade, will let people easily transfer files and leave other people voice mail beginning Wednesday. — Now people who use the instant messaging and voice chat service will be able to click a …

Real to plug Windows media support into Linux — SAN FRANCISCO—RealNetworks will release open-source software this year that will let Linux computers play Windows Media files. — The media delivery software company and Novell made the announcement at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here.

IBM takes potshots at OpenSolaris — SAN FRANCISCO—OpenSolaris isn't a true open-source project, but rather a "facade," because Sun Microsystems doesn't share control of it with outsiders, executives from rival IBM say. — "Sun holds it all behind the firewall.

Del.icio.us Redesigns, Again. Plus Contextual Ads — Del.icio.us has redesigned yet again, and just when I was starting to get used to the last change! Only the main page of del.icio.us has had significant changes made, now including screenshots, hot stuff (popular bookmarks at the moment) …

Can anything tame the battery flames? — Ross Dueber, CEO of Zinc Matrix Power, has two words for you: Think zinc. — The Camarillo, Calif.-based start-up is one of a number of companies that has been toiling away at a problem that's no longer obscure due to Dell's massive laptop battery recall …

How To Mix Business And Friendship — One luxury of being your own boss is choosing the people you work with. Just ask the folks at Google, Yahoo! and Boston Scientific. These are but a few large companies launched by friends who took a chance on working together.

How To Keep Your Search History Private — How can you help prevent damaging privacy invasions like AOL's data leak? Along with spreading the word about this debacle, you can take steps to protect yourself online. Beneath the fold, we've listed some tips and tools that will help keep your search history private.

What Are Web Surfers — Seeking? Well, It's — Just What You'd Think — One thing about us Internet users: We like our music, we like our pictures, we like our sex — and we like them all free. — Last week, AOL released a trove of what it thought were anonymous Web-search data from 650,000 of its customers.

Kiko On the Block — Web calendar Kiko has put its domain and code up for sale on eBay with a minimum bid of just under $50,000. — Web 2.0 is not all launch parties and magazine covers and bubbly! The online calendar space is one of the more crowded spots to be right now …

Windows Live Drive Info: Deleted Post From Team Member — We've speculated that Windows Live Drive, Microsoft's upcoming online storage service, may be launching very soon. New information today suggests that the internal Live Drive team formed around the end of last year, and contains some additional information as well.

'Pen' Testing in the Palm of Your Hand — A portable hacking device equipped with hundreds of exploits and an automated exploitation system will go on sale in the United States in October. — The wireless handheld, called Silica, is the latest product to be developed by Immunity …

YouTube gets its close-up — Just about everyone these days seems to be talking about the video-sharing phenomenon that is YouTube. — That was definitely the case at a digital media conference in San Jose on Tuesday. In the hallways, in panels, in casual conversation, YouTube came up constantly …

Kiko Flatlines — Online calendering company Kiko.com has decided to call it quits and put the site up for auction on eBay. They are also offering to export or delete user accounts. It looks like the Deadpool may gain another member. — The Massachusetts company was backed …

Satellite TV groups fade in auction — WASHINGTON — A partnership of the two top satellite television companies that qualified as the top potential bidders in the federal government's airwaves auction had all but dropped out of the competition by the close of bidding Tuesday.